David Livingstone was a Scottish doctor and missionary who explored the heart of Africa hoping to combat the slave-trade - still flourishing despite British efforts to end it - by helping Africans to engage in legitimate commerce instead. To that end, he travelled across the continent mapping possible transport routes and natural resources while giving practical help to farming communities.

Livingstone became famous in his own lifetime through his travelogue, in which he described the moment when he became the first European to see the Victoria Falls in modern Zimbabwe. After his wife Mary died in 1862, Livingstone continued his explorations but within a few years his health failed him, and he died in 1873.

113 words